Starting an Iksar SK, 13kish budget
 

I've already got a CoS for him, black sapphire earring, and a smoldering brand for 1hb. I've priced the following out to around 12k, but have around 1k extra to toss in if needed. I'm mainly looking for some help with oversights, as I'm not nearly as familiar with melee gear as I am with caster. I focused mostly on +hp gear, but if there's better price to performance elsewhere in some of my pieces, I'm all ears.

arms - dark scale sleeves
back - Cloak of the Maelstrom
chest - Phase Spider Carapace
ear 1 - Orc Fang Earring
face - Crystal Spider Eyes
feet - Lodizal Shell Boots
finger 1 - Platinum Fire Wedding Ring
finger 2 - Platinum Fire Wedding Ring
hands - Silver Chitin Hand Wraps
head - Crown of the Forlorn
legs - Giant Scalemail Leggings
neck - Black Sapphire Platinum Necklace
shoulders - Giant Scalemail Mantle
waist - Sebilite Scale Belt
wrist 1 - Tar goo strands
wrist 2 - Tar goo strands
1hs - Large Dragonbone Shard
2hb - Deathbringer's Rod
2hs - Vindication
piercing - Sarnak Backstabber
shield - Clay Guardian Shield
ranged - Runed Bone Fork

Any and all input is appreciated. Thank you.

Edit: This is for Green.

Armor wise you are fine, Iksars are more limited on what they can wear.

Weapon-wise you need some help.

The cheap weapons are fine for practicing skill ups. You can always downgrade to save a bit of plat. You just need a weapon to train hehe, doesn't have to be great. I wouldn't use Vindication since it procs cancel magic. That is going to suck when fear kiting.

EDIT: Just saw you are on Green. In that case, for your primary weapon https://wiki.project1999.com/Mace_of_the_Shadowed_Soul would probably be the best cheap weapon. https://wiki.project1999.com/Iceflame would be good too if you can get the plat, that isn't too expensive on Green.

Looks good to me, but get a new 1hb and a new 1hs. MoSS / Noct Blade are good options. MoSS is cheap on green atm (500-750p). Noct blade a little rarer (and cooler looking) so its a little pricier. But they both have MUCH better ratios than what you have -- which will make a huge difference level 20+.

Remember: Non -ogre shadowknights are really casters with better offense / defense / AC than they are melee. Spells are the most powerful tool you'll have.

That gear looks fine, but if I had to choose how to spend 12k, I'd just get SCHW, HP rings and a Reaver and go slaughter. You can put banded in the rest of your slots; it won't matter.

Reaver is only like 7k rn apparently https://unixgeek.com/prices-project1999-Reaver.html

It will be pretty bad until 20 and then kind of bad until 30, but after that it will chunk. In the meantime you can use a MOSS like the above posters suggested. Also consider doing 20-40 in HHK, you will earn enough plat to buy the rest.

Thats the price on blue. OP is on Green, price is 15k there.

Assuming green has greenmist in game now, i'd get that, depending on what your budget is. I'm not sure what those MQs are going for but they are pretty cheap on blue.

Thanks for all the advice, guys. I'll look into cutting a couple corners and upgrading some of the weps. Much appreciated =).

Here's another ripper that's slightly lower in price https://wiki.project1999.com/Shard_of_Night Chardok is farmed to hell right now, so you can probably haggle the price a little.

It's worth it front load a good weapon and haste. You're gonna be AC capped for a long while as you level.

Wow, I didn't even click on that weapon when I was researching, because I assumed there was no way I could afford it. Might have to start over and build around that and SCHW. Great info! Thanks so much, honestly.